Best Sublime Ballet Moment

Stuart Lauer and Elise Vitso in Ballet Tucson's Dance and Dessert

Staff Pick

The company's new leading man, Stuart Lauer, plucked from the ranks after years of steadily improving his dancing, partnered his real-life wife, Elise Vitso, in a re-staging of a pas de deux from the Antony Tudor masterpiece "Leaves Are Fading," in March 2012. The gorgeous work, danced by the local pro company for the first time, tells the universal story of true love. The love-struck newlyweds—she tall and lithe, he muscular and limber—were perfectly cast. No acting was required. As they moved through the Tudor steps, gazing into each other's eyes, they danced their own love story for all the world to see.